Shawn
Community Tutor
Is the word of this sentence correct with respect to the indirect object pronoun and the infinitive? First, does "Moram otići u Starbucks kupiti joj kavu." mean "I have to go to Starbucks to buy/get her a coffee."? I tried my best to translate that. Also, does "joj" come after "kupiti" like I listed it or is there some other word order for this? Thanks. *** By the way, we tend to say "to get" more than "to buy" in American English in a sentence like this.
Oct 22, 2014 7:00 AM
Answers · 6
1
You translated correct. Instead of "otići" you can use another word "ići". "Moram otići/ići u Starbucks kupiti joj kavu." Croatian is a language without strong word order. So, your sentence could be also like this: Moram joj otići/ići u Starbucks kupiti kavu. This is also correct but sounds little less used. Better is your translation. Also it can be heard: "Moram otići/ići joj u Starbucks kupiti kavu" but this is the worst option, rarely spoken. It can be wrong understood*. Somebody could understand that you must go to her to get a coffee (for example: she's working in some store and you will get a coffee from her, not for her). If you use third option (Moram otići/ići joj u Starbucks kupiti kavu), it would better sound like this: Moram otići/ići kupiti joj kavu u Starbucks. This is correct and this is an example where it is known that you will get a coffee for her, and not buy from her. There is no any other possible option with changing place for word "joj" so that sentence sounds correct. * Second option could be understood like third one but with less posibilities to understand it wrong.
October 22, 2014
No problem. Really? That's interesting! Thanks for that piece of information. :D One more thing occurred to me - just like in AE, you can also use the verb "uzeti" (to take) instead of "kupiti" in this context (or any other, for that matter, but if it's too ambiguous it would, of course, be better to use "kupiti" so that "uzeti" wouldn't be mistaken for stealing).
December 8, 2014
Thanks for this tip, Morana. It seems like you can do this in the Indonesian language too. Cool. :)
December 1, 2014
Hi, Shawn! You've already found out that the word order is alright. I just have another proposition for the sentence - omitting the verb. So, then you'd get: "Moram u Starbucks (...)" which sounds more fluent and would be commonly used (if not even more so than the version with the verb) in everyday speech especially. Another way could be "moram do Starbucksa".
December 1, 2014
Still haven’t found your answers?
Write down your questions and let the native speakers help you!